Somewhere very, very far away from Orber I.
One of "The Creators" flew alone in the midst of endless space, with no intention of creating Orber. It continued to fly, but then it met another creator. They stopped mid-space for a moment, then flew closer to each other and merged, which caused a huge gamma ray and Galaxy Explosion to occur. This formed a planet that was twenty times bigger than a supermassive black hole, with beautifully glowing lights from Nebula Energy.
Over time, the planet's growth process took longer than that of an average planet, since it required much more "Nebula Energy." The energy was nowhere near the planet's electromagnetic field, so it had to wait billions of years for a Nebula Explosion to occur nearby.
The Gangster Island of the North.
The name has become a hot topic this century: "The president of Gangster Island is offering millions of Picks and the island itself to whoever finds the National Treasure of Point Mountain???" This is new for organizations like the mafia, gangsters, or the yakuza in this world. Point Mountain is also forbidden to explore because of its history.
But brave and strong people like The Wyrmwood Company have dared to step forward to prove they are worthy of this treasure and the island. This company is filled with many Fire, Wood, and Stone element users. They are capable of mining, building, and even terraforming for any species, but it requires a lot of energy and blood. This means they need at least hundreds of doctors who specifically use Ancient Yang, but those are also rare.
What makes this more difficult is that Point Mountain is not an ordinary mountain, but one that is coated with Majestic Yin energy, which causes strong hallucinations in whoever dares to approach within a 35-kilometer radius.
They offered Crydan to come along with them, since he could use Ancient Yang for surgeries and other tasks. He accepted that offer for Jaylee's sake but was assassinated in the Outbreak of Rosajail accident.
A few months later, they gathered 50% of the required doctors and began their journey, led by a gangster named Ferruccio Di Cenere, a gangster who started his early career on Gangster Island as Gang Security, but was later kicked out for an unknown mistake.
"Alright boys, we're here. Set up the tents and campfires. We're on The Pointed Mountain now. Don't get too close to the damn things." Ferruccio announces, a smirk on his face as he pulls a cigar from his coat and lights it with a practiced flick.
"We're takin' back that island! We're gonna show 'em who's really in charge!" he roars, causing the others to shout in excitement. They also want to be ministers.
"We start digging tomorrow. Get these fires going; it's a cold bastard out here." Ferruccio orders, using his Wood element to form a rough wooden chair for himself before sitting down.
He wasn't just a strict person; he was carved out of stone. Raised in a family of iron fists, if he broke a rule or made a small mistake, he was locked in a dark room without food or water for weeks. He wasn't grown up; he was shaped into a perfect tool, a man with no flaws. His parents were also gangsters, former members of "The Citizen Dependency Gang"—a name and an operation as opposite as night and day. The gang was led by "Valen Dross," a man of brute force himself.
"Chief, I think we should go hunt. I heard the wild animals here make for a good meal," one of his supervisors says, walking up to him.
"Yeah, and they're a hundred times our size, easy," Ferruccio remarks with a mocking laugh. How could he laugh at something that big? Was he insane?
"Alright, boys, let's go get 'em!" Ferruccio commands. And just like that, they are hiding behind a huge rock from a giant boar—a beast they've learned is named Gulin—that has almost killed them all.
"INSECTS! YOU TRESPASS ON THESE SACRED GROUNDS, SEEKING ONLY TO REND FLESH AND CLAIM HIDE! FOR THIS, YOU WILL BE BROKEN!" Gulin howls, thrusting its horn into the nearby rock it suspects.
"Gimme the syringes...!" Ferruccio shouts, his voice barely audible over the loud blizzard. The boar throws the rock, now stuck to its horn, at the space beside their hiding spot.
"B-But chief! We need those for ourselves!" the supervisor stutters, healing his injured limbs with the elementary energy within the stone they're hidden behind.
"You heard me! We're having a feast tonight, I guarantee it!" Ferruccio says, gathering nearby woods and throwing a needle from his shirt into the pile of woods.
They know better than to argue with him. The supervisor takes one syringe from each person in the group, collecting 16 syringes in total. He hands them over with a trembling hand. "Chief, this is our last hope. Please keep us alive," he pleads.
Ferruccio laughs, giving himself all sixteen injections. "Don't worry. We're all gonna be kings of Gangster Island!" Then, with just a small wooden scrap and a needle, he multiplies them many times over, evolving into a massive wooden giant.
Gulin notices the shadow of something big slowly towering over it. Defensive instincts take over, and it transforms its horns into sharp blades to block whatever attacks the giant throws.
"YES. COME, TAKE WHAT YOU CRAVE. FEAST ON MY ESSENCE. CLOTHE YOURSELVES IN MY HIDE. IT IS ALL YOU KNOW. AND FOR THIS INSATIABLE HUNGER, YOUR KIND WILL ONE DAY ROT!" Gulin exclaims before its fate is sealed. The giant's wooden fists come down from the sky like heavy rain, one after another, until Gulin completely stops moving and collapses to the ground.
Somewhere in a dark lab.
A man in a lab coat is making a chip that will activate the full power of his creation, the G-Family Series. "Come on, this is the hundredth time this week..." he murmurs before the chip is placed and the main process begins.
He gathers Yin element energy at the tip of his fingers and draws a G symbol on the chip, which remains colorless.
"Goddammit!" he slams his fist on the table and angrily throws everything into a corner. As I said, he has failed a hundred times, so you can't blame him for lashing out. He impatiently takes off his lab coat and sits on his chair to study where he has failed again.
Little did he know, the G symbols on the abandoned chips have started to glow with a faint green light, illuminating the nearby walls.
"The spirit creation is all Yin functions! Why isn't it working?!" he murmurs to himself, flustered and flipping through the pages of his study book. Without his knowledge, the chips fly by themselves and perfectly attach themselves to the necks of the G-Family models.
Then, glowing green eyes open.
"The Yin handler activated."
"Pulling nearby souls."
"Two souls detected."
"Pulling them once for all."
"Process started. It might take a moment to hours."
The narrative voices from the machine startle him and he suddenly grabs a nearby railgun he made.
Oh, wait. His name is Microchip, not his true name, but a codename. No one knows who he is, not even himself. He came to Rosejail City randomly, settled there, signed up as a government experiment, and later became a scientist himself.
"Is this really working?... Please don't be a hallucination!" Microchip shouts with a mix of despair and happiness. His nearly-abandoned experiment is now a success! He has made the government proud!
Then the handler lets go of the body, and the body stands up on its own. The second the body sees Microchip, it looks shocked. How? This first model was designed to be emotionless and follow instructions, but now? It's curiously trying out its body parts, moving its arms, spiraling its wrists, and spinning its head.
"Is that you?... Is that really you, Ja—" Before the first model can say the name, Microchip shuts its mouth. "No. Don't say it. It's been so long since I've forgotten that. Don't bring it back." He sighs, wiping the sweat from his forehead.
"Anyway, who are you? Which soul did the protocol retrieve? Oh, by the way, this model is called "Chris," so that's your new name now." Microchip asks, taking out his notebook to prepare a record.
"Don't you remember me, Ja— I mean, Microchip? I'm Crydan!" Chris exclaims, feeling a mixture of nostalgic sadness that makes Microchip frown hard.
"Crydan? Nah, this AI is really impressive. He's in a coma. I'm thinking of visiting him to check up on him and see if there's something I can help with. So, who are you really?" Microchip brushes it off. After all, the government declared Dr. Crydan to be in a coma for an estimated five to eight years.
"Microchip, I died... I died in that incident. What you're thinking isn't true!" he explains desperately, before having an idea.
"Give me that pen and notebook." Chris says, taking them from Microchip's hands and writing the word "Surgeon" in his own terrible handwriting. Back in their younger days, they would make fun of it and laugh together.
"Crydan... So it's really you." Microchip says as he reads the word written in Crydan's hand.
"Yes, it's truly me. Man, how long it has been." Chris laughs and pats Microchip's shoulder. It's been only a few minutes, but Crydan is already getting used to his new robotic body.
"I really suspected it was you when you tried to bring up that name, but yeah, you truly are Crydan." Microchip also laughs along with him. "So, do you like my new project? It was almost abandoned. The main idea behind this project is to keep people alive with mechanical bodies—well, only good people." Microchip explains, taking out a lab record book that contains many equations and raw blueprints.
"This is the main equation. It's the whole concept of my project," Microchip explains, pointing at the equation he remastered.
FS = YA ⋅ PS + ( BR ⊗ MC ) ⇒ IS
"For context, FS stands for Final Soul Identity—for example, you. Then comes OA, Ordinary Yin. I infuse that Yin energy into the protocol and release PS, a Pulled Soul essence signature. The BR (Receiver Body) parameters then accept that soul signature and start the Soul-Body-Mind fusion (⊗), which gives us an irreversible transformation into that receiver body!"
"That's very complex, though I'm kind of familiar with those kinds of formulas." Chris nods. He'd read something similar to this formula before but couldn't remember where.
"Really? Here I thought I was the original creator of this formula." Microchip laughs and sits down on his one-man bed before pressing a button, which instantly summons a white rectangular cube beside the bed.
"Take a seat, Crydan. Let's celebrate our reunion with dinner together!" Microchip says as he pulls a drawer out of the rectangle cube and takes out two sets of spoons and forks before handing one to Chris.
"Wait, that's easier said than done. Where's the food?" Chris asks with a confused expression. Yeah... the rectangle's upper surface is blank; there's nothing that looks like food!
"Well... this is kind of strange, but you know about elementary blood cells? There are fifteen different elements, but there are also nine of them, which are considered special cases." Microchip explains as he slams his palms onto the upper surface. His hands glint with flickering gray lights, and the rectangle starts to shake violently before different images of food stacked up appear on the surface.
"Now, try tapping one of those you desire to eat. Oh, by the way, this robotic body is blended with you now, so you can do pretty much everything normally. The only differences are pooping, blinking, and breathing; you don't need to do them." Microchip adds as he also taps one of the food images, which causes a plate full of fried salad to appear.
"I'll explain the function later; now let's eat." Microchip says as he starts to eat his own fried salad. Chris does the same to the picture of food he picked and also begins to eat.
"Cheers!" The workers shout in unison as they raise their drinks in the air. It is a night of celebration before the work begins!
"Chief, that was fascinating. We still can't believe how you defeated that boar. Now our stomachs are covered for the next few months!" The assistant cheers him as he bites down on the pork.
Ferruccio just smirks while drinking his drink. This entire hunt reminded him of his father being chased and assassinated by Valen's men right before his eyes, his father's faint life left in his hands.
"Chief, why are you tearing up? Is there snow in your eye?" A nearby worker, seeing his eyes become watery, asks him. To Ferruccio, his father was nothing but a good person. Even though he was out there killing people for money and fame, he still came back home in time to see his mother and him, never leaving them to starve even for a day.
"Nothing, it's just dust." He lets out a humorless laugh before wiping the tears from his eyes. There is another reason he came here, other than the national treasure."